Chapter 6 The Total Physical Response

Chapter 6 Total Physical Response

Background Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity. James Asher, a professor of psychology at San Jose State University, California, draws on several traditions, including developmental psychology, learning theory, and humanistic pedagogy, as well as on language teaching procedures by Harold and Dorothy Palmer in 1925.

Sources of TPR ―Trace theory‖ of memory in psychology: the more often or the more intensively a memory connection is traced, the stronger the memory association will be and the more likely it will be recalled. Verbal rehearsal accompanied by motor activity increases the probability of successful recall. In a developmental sense, successful adult L2 learning is seen as a parallel process to child L1 acquisition: command — physical response — verbal response.

In a sense of humanistic psychology, TPR shows a concern for the role of affective factors in L learning:– No linguistic demand – Gamelike movements that reduce stress and create a positive mood

Comprehension Approach: developing comprehension skills before learners speaking based the following beliefs:– Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning a language; – Speaking delayed until comprehension skills established; – Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills; – Teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form; and – Teaching should minimize learner stress

The use of physical action: Action-based teaching strategy has a long tradition– Gouin advocated a strategy in which a chain of action verbs served as the basis for introducing and practicing new language items. – Palmer experimented with an action-based teaching strategy in his book English through Actions.

Approach: Theory of language TPR is built on the structuralist or grammar-based view of language.– Asher states that ―most of the grammatical structure of the target language and hundreds of vocabulary items can be learned form the skillful use of the imperative by the instructor‖. – Asher sees language as being composed of abstractions and nonabstractions, the later being most specifically represented by concrete nouns and imperative verbs, by which learners can acquire a ―detailed cognitive map‖. But this claim is insufficiently detailed to test since abstractions as tense, aspect, articles are elements for ―map‖ to build on.

Asher also states that language can be internalized as wholes or chunks, rather than as single lexical items. But he does not elaborate on his view of chunking, nor on other aspects of the theory of language underlying TPR, such as the relation between comprehension, production, and communication.

Approach: Theory of learning Asher’s learning theories are reminiscent of the views of other b

ehavioral psychologists:– Arthur Jensen’s seven-stage model to describe the development of verbal learning in children, the first stage being Sv-R type of learning interpreted as: Sv referring to a verbal stimulus, a syllable, a word, a phrase, and son on; R referring to the physical movements the child makes in response to Sv. This represents the simplest form of verbal behavior.

This is a similar position to Asher’s view of child language acquisition.

Asher’s view of language learning Asher sees S-R view as providing the learning theory underlying language teaching pedagogy. He elaborated an account of what facilitates or inhibits foreign learning, based on three learning hypotheses:– There exist a specific innate bio-program for L learning, defining an optimal path for L1 and L2 development. – Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in the left- and right-brain hemispheres. – Stress intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning.

The Bio-Program Three processes as central in L1 acquisition:– Children develop listening competence before the ability to speak. – Their ability in listening comprehension is acquired in physical response to parental spoken commands. – Speech evolves naturally and effortlessly out of a foundation in listening comprehension.

Parallel to L1 learning process, FL learners should first internalize a ―cognitive map‖ of the target language through listening exercises, accompanied by physical movement.

Order of skill acquiring: Listen- speaking and other skills. These assumptions are based on his belief that there exists in the human brain a bio-program for language, defining an optimal order for L1 and L2.– A reasonable hypothesis is that the brain and nervous system are biologically programmed to acquire language… in a particular sequence and in a particular mode. The sequence is listening before speaking and the mode is to synchronize language with the inpidual’s body.

Brain Lateralization Asher, based on neurological studies of the brains of cats and an epileptic boy whose corpus callosum was surgically pided, sees PTR as directed to right-brain, while SLL left-brain. The right hemisphere of the brain controls language activities. Asher, drawing on work by Jean Piaget, holds that child learns a language through motor movement— a righthemisphere activity, which must occur before the lefthemisphere can process language production. The adult should exercise language mastery through righthemisphere activities so as to trigger the left hemisphere to produce language and initiate language processes.

Reduction of Stress An important condition for successful language learning is the absence of stress. L1 acquisition takes place in a stress-free environment while adult L learning often causes stress and anxiety. The key to stress-free learni

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